BOSTON – Sen. John Edwards, the charismatic and energized running mate who stands to make Sen. John Kerry a more powerful presidential candidate, roused the Democratic Party on Wednesday night with a populist appeal to working people’s causes.

Speaking shortly before delegates formally nominated Kerry to be their party’s standard-bearer, Edwards rallied the Democratic National Convention with the refrains of a preacher denouncing the divide between rich and poor.

“It doesn’t have to be that way,” Edwards declared repeatedly, drawing cheers each time and an audience echoing his words: “Hope is on the way.”

It wasn’t only Edwards, but also his wife, Elizabeth, who stirred the convention casting a state-by-state roll-call Wednesday night for Kerry’s nomination for president, a mantle the Massachusetts senator will accept Thursday night.

The Rev. Al Sharpton also whipped convention-goers into a froth with a roiling sermon on the rights that Democrats have won for Americans and a pointed assault on President Bush: “Read my lips. Our vote is not for sale.”

Elizabeth Edwards, a former bankruptcy lawyer with a warm smile, brought delegates to their feet in the basketball arena where button-bedecked, poster-waving, disco-dancing and loudly cheering Democrats are packed shoulder-to-shoulder.

Declaring that Kerry “has the right stuff,” she said. “I married a man with the right stuff, too. I married the smartest, toughest, sweetest man I know … married him because he was the single most optimistic person I have ever known.”

Edwards will carry the Kerry campaign to Florida on Monday – with stops in Orlando, Jacksonville and Miami – as part of a two-week, 21-state tour that Kerry and Edwards will make to capitalize on the buzz coming out of their convention.

This mill-worker’s son – who made a fortune as a trial lawyer, who was first in his family to attend college and last among major Democratic candidates to concede defeat to Kerry in the party’s primaries – campaigns with a natural appeal to working-class voters, women and African-Americans.

“He has appeal and charisma – and to be honest, women like him,” says Ike Williams, district director for an African-American congressman in Columbia, S.C., who has seen Edwards campaign in the cavernous Bible Way church back home.

“He has a certain Clinton-esque factor, with appeal to the female audience,” said Williams, who is black. “Among African-Americans, he moves extremely well.”

Edwards’ appeal to independent-minded voters made him a close rival to Kerry in the first contest of the year, Iowa’s party caucuses, and kept him competitive through the last primary where he threatened Kerry, in Wisconsin.

But in the end, all Edwards could claim was his native South Carolina, where he was raised in a salmon-colored mill-house that became a campaign trademark.

Singer John Mellencamp serenaded a flag-waving convention with Edwards’ adopted campaign song, “Small Town.”

Edwards, 51, has served just one term in the Senate, leaving him vulnerable to criticism for lack of grounding in world affairs and national politics alike.

But he has employed his humble upbringing and enriching success in courtroom battles to voice a theme that rings true and is easily understood: He speaks of “two Americas,” one for the wealthy, one the rest, and promises to bridge the two.

“The truth is, we still live in a country where are two different Americas,” Edwards said in a 30-minute speech Wednesday night. “It doesn’t have to be that way. We can build one America.”

Edwards delved into policy as well as polish, devoting much of his talk to details of how Kerry proposes to insure most Americans lacking health care, roll back Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest to pay for it, raise the minimum wage, modernize the military and double Special Forces fighting terrorism.

Edwards has campaigned with a relentless optimism, while the president’s re-election campaign attempts to tar the Kerry campaign for its “pessimism.”

“In the weeks ahead, we know what’s coming – don’t we? More negative attacks,” Edwards told convention-goers. “Aren’t you sick of it?”

“Yes,” the hall answered as one, delegates rising to their feet and cheering Edwards for his campaign-debut with a prime-time audience.

“Between now and November, you, the American people, can reject the tired, old, hateful, negative, politics of the past,” Edwards said. “Instead, you can embrace the politics of hope, the politics of what’s possible.”

His charismatic appeal and clear message have added excitement to a campaign confronting questions about Kerry’s aloofness and often muddled message.

“I’m excited about the ticket – especially with Edwards on the ticket,” said Lee Wild, a retired executive secretary from Altamonte Springs, Fla., attending the convention as a delegate. “I think he’ll energize the campaign.”

With Edwards, Kerry hopes to enhance his appeal to independent-minded voters in the Midwest. The campaign also hopes to penetrate the South.

This includes not only Florida, but also Louisiana, Arkansas, Virginia and West Virginia – and with Edwards on the ticket, perhaps even North Carolina.

The Bush campaign scoffs at Kerry’s designs on the South. If Edwards has little more than five years in the Senate, Kerry has nearly 20. And between them, the Bush camp says, they have cast some of the most liberal votes.

If Kerry’s voting record ranked most liberal in the Senate last year, the independent National Journal has found, Edwards and two others ranked second.

“A career of raising taxes and cutting defense can’t be erased with a running mate with a Southern accent,” said Reed Dickens, Southeast regional spokesman for the Bush campaign. “Edwards has a monumental task to win over the South.”

But three full months remain in this contest, which will draw an infusion of $75 million in public financing with Kerry’s nomination Thursday night. Bush, too, will draw $75 million with his nomination in New York on Sept. 2.

The ultimate fight will not be a clash of cash, but a contest of messages.

“Hope is on the way,” Edwards said here in a direct appeal to a divided electorate. “When you wake up and sit with your kids at the kitchen table, talking to them about the great possibilities in America, you make sure that they know that John and I believe at our core that tomorrow can be better than today.”


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